numbers that could change everything in a razor tight race. the government reports america's unemployment rate rising in the month of october to 7.9%. 171,000 jobs added last month. that is far fewer than the 250,000 many economists say are needed each month to turn the economy around. so that is the big number we have. that's where we start. good morning. i'm bill hemmer. welcome here. morning, martha. martha: good morning bill. what a week. it is friday. welcome everybody, i'm martha maccallum. this jobs report today could be the freshest things people have in their mind in terms of a economic number when they head to the polls in a few days. this short shows it has been a very slow, sluggish recovery. the government reports real unemployment, this is the number we want to focus on, 14.6%. we say that for a good reason. that includes people that are underemployed, even people only worked one day, get counted in the underemployed, part time emed employed. some just have given up. bill: stuart varney, anchor fox business network. good morning